India releases draft of new telecom policy

John Ribeiro |
Oct. 11, 2011

Indian Minister for Communications Kapil Sibal announced a new draft telecommunication policy on Monday, aiming to give preference to domestic manufacturers of equipment, with an eye to reducing the country's import bill and ensuring the security of telecom networks.

The policy will also allow operators to share and trade in spectrum, to optimize it use. The telecom industry will also be treated as an infrastructure industry, with possible tax breaks.

The new policy is however short on details of how the country plans to raise funds for the telecom expansion. The ambitious targets cannot be reached by private sector investment alone, Bhatia said. Government will have to look at technology as an important enabler for meeting social objectives, and invest substantially, he added.